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Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Notebandi, bewafa Sonam test even IIT students in exams -

A professor of IIT-Guwahati incorporated ‘Sonam Gupta bewafa hai’ meme in a question paper on probability.

LUCKNOW: Demonestisation has now reached the examination halls at Indian Institute of Technology. While at IIT-Delhi, a humanities professor put up a question on the effect of demonetisation on the suicide rate in India, a professor of IIT-Guwahati incorporated 'Sonam Gupta bewafa hai' meme in probability question paper.

The sociology question paper of IIT-Delhi, TOI has a copy of it, sought answers from students on the effect of demonetised high value currency notes on the suicide rate in India. Would the suicide go up or down due to demonetisation? The compulsory 10-mark question also asked the context in which Durkheim's (French philosopher) suicide theory discussed such events and will the demonetisation be different in rural or urban areas or for different classes.

Prof Ravinder Kaur, head of humanities and social sciences department at IIT-Delhi, said, "In social sciences (and humanities), we often try to illustrate and explicate theoretical concepts and ideas by relating them with contemporary events and happenings. Students engage more with what we are teaching when they realise it has some usefulness for understanding what is happening around them. Also, such questions make students learn how to think logically and creatively and not simply reproduce what has been taught in class or given in a book or a theory."

She added, "I am sure, the same is done in many science and engineering courses—Narmada dam would be a good example for civil engineers, smog for atmospheric sciences students and others."

A student told TOI: "It is fascinating to write on an issue the entire nation—in fact, other countries too—are talking about.

The question could have been simply put up by asking Durkheim's suicide theory but linking it with demonetisation was a creative way to present. The answers will be worth looking at.''

Giving a dash of humour to the end semester, a professor in the department of electronics and electrical engineering at IIT-Guwahati used the 'Sonam Gupta bewafai hai' meme, which took the internet by storm, to ask a question in probablity course. The question asked to determine if a person 'x' is bewafa, what is the probablity that Sonam Gupta is bewafa given a dependence structure between variables where all variables are binary and their high values mean the following: G means gender of 'x' is female (~G means the opposite), S means biological parents of 'x' are strict with her, W means x is wealthy, A means x is attractive, L means x has lots of options, B means x is bewafa, C means at least one other person y claims that the person x is bewafa.

Using further information given on the question paper, students were asked to draw a Bayesian network and convert it into a factor graph. The question which when shared on Facebook by an IIT-Guwahati student received over 150 shares and 600 likes. "The response is overwhelming. We all love the professor for making the question so exciting. It has spread to other IITs widely been commented up on,'' said he, without wanting to be named.